1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data carrier such as a credit card or bank cark including at least one removable information layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
German Patent Application DE 197 16 099 A1 discloses a card-shaped data carrier having printed information that is covered by a plastic film. However, the information printed on the card is limited to information provided by the manufacturer of the card. In addition, German Patent Application DE 198 51 836 A1 discloses a card-shaped data carrier having a thermoreversible layer applied sequentially to produce visible information. The information is limited to an area of an inscription segment including the information.
German Patent Application DE 200 17 161 U1 discloses a card-shaped data carrier having a plurality of inscription segments including visually readable information. The number and size of the inscription fields, however, are limited by the size of the data carrier. German Patent Application DE 196 07 363 A1 discloses a card-shaped data carrier including an integrated chip storing user-specific information. However, to read the user-specific information, a separate electrical card reader is required.
German Patent Application DE 101 24 327 A1 discloses a data carrier having a magnetic strip for storing user-specific information and having visually readable information such as an account number, customer number, card issuer, etc. To increase the amount of information provided on the data carrier, another inscription segment including a barcode is glued over the memory segment. However, to prevent an interaction between the electromagnetic memory segment and the inscription segment, the manufacturing costs of this data carrier is increased.